The Lion King (1994)

As Disney’s Pixar continues to dazzle eyeballs with animated CGI fare such as “Incredibles” and “Toy Story” sequels, it’s easy to forget the unbeatable magic of hand-drawn animation, and “The Lion King” is absolutely one of the best of now extinct ink-and-paint glories. This is a jaw-dropping beautiful epic with a capital “E” movie with music catchable, happy, and chilling, and characters straight from Shakespeare. You know plot: Young African lion cub Simba is the apple of his father/king’s eye until the latter is killed, leaving Simba on the run, under the impression that he did in his daddy. It is, of course, the uncle, to blame. In other words, “Hamlet.” The voice cast is perfect, from James Earl Jones as the king/father, and full “Reversal of Fortune” evil Jeremy Irons as Uncle Scar, to Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Matthew Broderick as young and adult Simba. But it’s visuals I love -– the exact strokes made by men and women, not computers, of a cub sinking in the grass in fear of dad’s wrath or the same cub trying to awaken his dead father. Breathtaking. Amazing. Art. The 18-year-old “King” has aged like royal wine. Classic. A+

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

John Carpenter’s cult-classic, >$100,000-budget action thriller “Assault of Precinct 13” is the parent to all “siege” movies that would come a decade later, including “Die Hard.” Itself a modern re-make of “Alamo”-type flicks, this also was to be set in the West, but Carpenter could not swing the budget. The bare plot: A mysterious pack of gang members attack a L.A. ghetto police station on the eve of its closure, trapping a stalwart African-American officer (Austin Stoker), several women, and convicted felons (including Darwin Joston) inside. “Assault” is a midnight feature that can play as a maybe-zombie film -– the gang members dabble with bowls of blood and are all but suicidal. Deep-thoughts: It’s a post-Vietnam American meltdown, or a satire on 1950s films that celebrated white heroics and all but demeaned blacks, flipped on its, middle finger held out proud. But the heck with deep anything, this is a blazin’ cool cheap “B” flick that excels its origins and is seriously nasty fun. The title, by the way, is infamously wrong. The besieged station is District 13, Precinct 9. “Assault of Precinct 9”? Hmmm. Na. “13.” B+

Safe House (2012)

“Safe House” is another corrupt CIA thriller that plays with the Hollywood rule that if a hotshot star (Ryan Reynolds) is the young hero and a middle-aged actor (Brendan Gleeson) of Oscar-winning fare plays the mentor/father figure, then the former must pop a lot of James Bond stunt work as the latter plays cool and adds another villain to his resume. Seen “Recruit”? This is it, again. Spoiler? No. “Safe” takes no chances and delivers just as many thrills, its script also Xeroxing “Training Day.” How so? Denzel Washington is back in bad-ass mode as Tobin Frost, a rogue CIA agent who lands under the care of Reynold’s Boy Scout as they lock horns while fleeing across South Africa from countless assassins. Along the way Frost schools Reynolds’ agent about the grim life working for Langley. Washington brings grace Frost barely deserves, while Reynolds gets his grit on as a guy who can take car crashes, beatings, stabbings, and a broken heart all in stride and still outsmart all his bosses. The character is so magical he could send Gleeson’s Mad-Eye Moody’s fake eye rollin’. C-

Extract (2009)

Mike Judge’s “Office Space” is a classic comedy for anyone who works at a desk and stores paper clips as if they were nuts for winter. “Extract” is another work comedy from the man who also gave us “Beavis and Butthead,” but set in the blue-collar arena. Jason Bateman is Joel Reynolds, owner of a company that makes baking extract. Running a business is the American Dream, right? Not for Joel. His desperate plan to sell out and retire with his wife (Kristin Wiig) is undone thanks to a bizarre factory-floor accident, a goofball bartender pal (Ben Affleck), and the arrival of a hot con artist (Mila Kunis). Judge makes small comedies about real people – oddballs and eccentrics, sure – but people we all know, and love and hate, including the gabby neighbor. His targeting of the privileged is ruthless, while his needling of common folk is rarely mean. Funny? Yes. But “Extract” is scaled as a TV movie, even if the warped marriage comedy thread playfully echoes “American Beauty.” B

300 (2007)

My snob self should hate the sandal-and-swords war romp “300” and its acid-trip virtual reality CGI effects salted by cliché dialogue about oaths of brutality as honor, and it’s need to be the War Porn film to end all War Porn films. Hell, it pits brave European men against soulless Prussians, i.e., lots of white guys squaring off against dark-skinned guys. But the hell with snobbery and politics, “300” is a blood-in-the-head, scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs shock-and-awe blast for the eyes and ears that takes Frank Miller’s gloriously bloody graphic novel of King Leonidas’ last stand against Xerxes and puts it on the screen frame by panel, splatter by splatter, blood mixed with ink. Director Zack Snyder takes all the carnage of the page and adds in screaming, raging men, and thundering music primed for the male ego. Sexist? Homophobic? Ha. “300” has a massive female and gay fan base. One guess why: Those 300 men. This is not Best of the Decade film a la “There Will be Blood,” but when Gerard Butler -– in a star-making performance -– as Leonidas screams “This! Is! Sparta!” and kills a dude … “300” is my Guilty Pleasure of the Decade. A-

Detropia (2012)

No matter one’s politics, everyone knows the American economy started tanking in 2007 and crashed in 2008, and has yet to really recover. The documentary “Detropia” is about, of course, Detroit, and its past glory crushed by a collapsed auto industry hit hard by economic woes, international competition, and its own greedy execs who would rather pay foreigners pennies per day. Directors Heidi Ewing, a native of the city, and Rachel Grady, from the East Coast, talk to union reps, a retiree running a dying restaurant, and a video blogger among a few others helpless to save their homes. The city’s broke and every cure is bad and –- in the idea of creating massive farms -- lunatic. Ewing and Grady offer no answers or judgments, nor do they talk to big wigs or CEOs, but they do show some ironies -– including an opera house that plays to the rich, while the jobless suffer outside. One man sings in an abandoned train station that must have buzzed with a few hundred thousand people every day. It’s certain things will never be the same in Detroit or in America. Grady said she wanted subliminal. That’s cool. But it’s also fleeting. B+

The Traveler (2010)

The title of horror thriller “The Traveler” means zip. It isn’t about a tourist, or salesman. Instead former film star Val Kilmer plays a Drifter/Stranger/Nobody/Ghost who walks into the police station of a deserted town one Christmas Eve and confesses to the six officers on duty that he is guilty of six murders. He then proceeds to commit his confessions in acts so supernatural you can hear Dana Carvey whisper “Ssssatan.” The deeds -– whippings, hangings, shovel beatings, and suffocating -- are linked to the torture of a suspect by the same officers a year prior. Director Michael Oblowitz cranks down the mood with camera pans down dark hallways, but this is a “Tales from the Crypt” episode stretched to 90 minutes, with violence repeated and slo-mo’d to the point of tedium, hilarity, and eventually disgust. Kilmer is game, but appears uncomfortably overweight. Dude weighs 250, and people are worried about out-running him? The slapped-on title says it all. Why care when the movie makers don’t. C-